Time to say goodbye after successful refloat

Rescuers wave farewell to the refloated pilot whale as it swims out to sea at Komene Rd beach near Okato on Tuesday. Sadly the female pilot whale left behind its calf, which died after beaching with its mother and another pilot whale the day before. Pilot whales are in fact one of the largest members of the dolphin family, but they are treated as whales for the purposes of the Marine Mammals Protection Regulations 1992. They were named pilot whales because it was thought that each pod followed a ‘‘pilot’’ in the group.